21.12.15
20.12.15
How to learn Poskim [legal authorities] --to do the whole Tur with the Beit Yoseph.
How to learn Poskim [legal authorities] --to do the whole Tur with the Beit Yoseph. And after that the Shulchan Aruch of Joseph Karo with the Beer Heiteiv. [There are very few achronim that I think are any good when it comes to almost anything and especially Halacha. The best is the Aruch HaShulchan and the basic school of Reb Chaim Soloveitchik, Baruch Ber, Shimon Shkop and Rav Shach. ]
A shiur in the Avi Ezri. The way to do the Avi Ezri is straight from cover to cover.
If you have only an hour to learn, I think the Avi Ezri is the best thing. It is Halacha, and deep learning and shows how to learn in an amazing simple way all together.
[After I wrote the above last night, it occurred to me that I needed to make clear I am talking about learning fast. Just say the words and go on. See Sichot HaRan chapter 76. And also Biyan Olam [a book about learning Torah, that used to be around in yeshivas but I doubt of it is in print anymore.]
The same goes for Rav Shach's book the Avi Ezri. I think the first time around just to say the words and go on. However I am nowadays learning it with my learning partner and we are going slow, but that is because we are using it as a kind of tool for learning in depth.
A shiur in the Avi Ezri. The way to do the Avi Ezri is straight from cover to cover.
If you have only an hour to learn, I think the Avi Ezri is the best thing. It is Halacha, and deep learning and shows how to learn in an amazing simple way all together.
[After I wrote the above last night, it occurred to me that I needed to make clear I am talking about learning fast. Just say the words and go on. See Sichot HaRan chapter 76. And also Biyan Olam [a book about learning Torah, that used to be around in yeshivas but I doubt of it is in print anymore.]
The same goes for Rav Shach's book the Avi Ezri. I think the first time around just to say the words and go on. However I am nowadays learning it with my learning partner and we are going slow, but that is because we are using it as a kind of tool for learning in depth.
Lashon Hara about true things. This is an argument between the Rambam and Rabbainu Yona.
So what I wanted to deal with is Lashon Hara about true things. This is an argument between the Rambam and Rabbainu Yona. To R.Y. it is forbidden only because of the things that will result from it. To the Rambam it is forbidden from its own self except in Beit Din.
The places and people I saw that were successful in learning Torah were always the places that keep this idea of Lashon Hara foremost in their minds.
But I admit I was not able to do this. At some point I saw that my whole world had turned upside down and my very existence was a statement of Lashon Hara about people I thought were good and turned out to be horribly evil. It was not that I did not want to be careful about this. But instead I decided to stick to just one thing--to speak the truth at all costs. I figured that the power of truth would help me through the mess I had gotten myself in.
[I should mention that the worship of tzadikim has gone over the line already. So while we should learn from them, but not worship them. Even if these people would be perfect, still idolatry is idolatry. And all the more so when in fact even a true tzadik has something negative in them. And when one worships him he gets attached to the negative side of the tzadik.]
Edward Witten's brief essay about String Theory
Edward Witten's brief essay about String Theory
I am no one to comment about this. But if you like me find this essay difficult would like to suggest learning in chronological order. This was not always possible for me. But I found it helpful when it came to Physics and Math. That is I would start out with Calculus. Then I would work up into the 1700's with Laplace and Fourier and Lagrange. Then I would go on to Galois and the Sophus Lie.
I had done a good deal of work in Physics before I had done all this, but that was more because of lack of resources and lack of options. So I read books in Physics also, but all the time I kept in mind that I would only understand them after completing the above mentioned material.
I don't know if this is how they teach these things today but this method I found helpful for myself.
I am no one to comment about this. But if you like me find this essay difficult would like to suggest learning in chronological order. This was not always possible for me. But I found it helpful when it came to Physics and Math. That is I would start out with Calculus. Then I would work up into the 1700's with Laplace and Fourier and Lagrange. Then I would go on to Galois and the Sophus Lie.
I had done a good deal of work in Physics before I had done all this, but that was more because of lack of resources and lack of options. So I read books in Physics also, but all the time I kept in mind that I would only understand them after completing the above mentioned material.
I don't know if this is how they teach these things today but this method I found helpful for myself.
Religious extremism is not the problem. It is what kind of religious extremism .
In any case see this interesting Utube from Pragger University
It is not religious fanaticism that is the problem. Bach was a religious fanatic. Moses was a religious fanatic.
The Gra was a religious fanatic. Catholic nuns are religious fanatics. Mir Yeshiva students are religious fanatics. These people are not the problem. The problem is Islamic religion. Period.
I could go further. The problem is זה לעומת זה. For every true tzadik there is an equal and opposite anti Tzadik.
That is for every area of value there is an opposing area of value. And usually each area has one person that represented that area to the fullest human capacity. [Thus it is necessary to identify the people that were connected to the realm of goodness and holiness and to identify the opposite. This is because people need some guide in each realm. ]
This diagram from Dr. Kelley Ross's site might help to show what I mean
In any case see this interesting Utube from Pragger University
It is not religious fanaticism that is the problem. Bach was a religious fanatic. Moses was a religious fanatic.
The Gra was a religious fanatic. Catholic nuns are religious fanatics. Mir Yeshiva students are religious fanatics. These people are not the problem. The problem is Islamic religion. Period.
I could go further. The problem is זה לעומת זה. For every true tzadik there is an equal and opposite anti Tzadik.
That is for every area of value there is an opposing area of value. And usually each area has one person that represented that area to the fullest human capacity. [Thus it is necessary to identify the people that were connected to the realm of goodness and holiness and to identify the opposite. This is because people need some guide in each realm. ]
This diagram from Dr. Kelley Ross's site might help to show what I mean
19.12.15
Music for the uncovering of the glory of God.
These are in mp3 format. Next I am putting here the same files in midi format.
I wanted to explain in a simple way how to learn Talmud. This I how will be more simple than the other essay I wrote on this a long time ago.
1) Bekiut. בקיאות. That is to learn fast. What I suggest is not a Daf [a whole leaf.] Rather what is called in the USA "a page." That in Hebrew would be an עמוד a column. You start at the top of the page and just say the words in order until you get to the bottom. Then you do every Rashi and every Tosphot Maharsha and Maharam on the page. The next day to go to the next page. And you keep on going until you have finished the two Talmuds and the Sifra Sifri and Tosephta.
That is the fast session. It should not take any more than 40 min. and if you don't want to do the maharasha and maharam the first time around then it should be about 25 minutes.
2) The next session is the in depth one. עיון. For this I found the best thing is to stay on one page of Gemara for a long time. That is to do every single commentary I can get my hands on on that page and do as much as I can in one day. Then the next day I do the same. This should go on for about 40 days at least. It is what people dislike about Lithuanian yeshivas.But the Litvak yeshivas are right about this. People that think they can get the depths of the Gemara without this are usually mistaken.
[The basic commentaries are the regular rishonim and if you can get them the best achronim are the ones coming from the school of thought of Reb Chaim Soloveitick and Rav Shach.]
Also if you are in NY then you ought to make every possible effort to get to one of the authentic Litvak yeshivas. That is if you are going to learn Torah from anyone you have to make sure it is from people that in fact know how to learn. And those kind of people are very rare. The authentic places in NY are the Mir in Brooklyn, Chaim Berlin, and Torah VeDaat, and Shar Yashuv.
[In Israel there are a few more. Ponovitch seems to be the best but Brisk is a close second.]
Why to go to a yeshiva? Maybe you think it is better to spend $30,000 to get a degree in gender studies? The Talmud will still be around when gender studies have been consigned to the garbage bin of history.
Appendix: I used this method for Mathematics and Physics also. But I cant talk about this since I have not made the kind of progress I had hoped. Part of the problem is that my time was limited in how much effort I could spend on these two subjects. Starting at a time when physically I was weak and there were enormous demands on my time and also the terrible problems I was going through I think limited how effective my learning method could have been. Learning Physics 20 minutes in the morning is not means I could not expect teh same results as when I spent 11 hours a day on Talmud.And learning when one is young is not the same as learning as one gets older.
What I recommend today to anyone that will listen is to divide ones time half and half between Talmud and natural science.
1) Bekiut. בקיאות. That is to learn fast. What I suggest is not a Daf [a whole leaf.] Rather what is called in the USA "a page." That in Hebrew would be an עמוד a column. You start at the top of the page and just say the words in order until you get to the bottom. Then you do every Rashi and every Tosphot Maharsha and Maharam on the page. The next day to go to the next page. And you keep on going until you have finished the two Talmuds and the Sifra Sifri and Tosephta.
That is the fast session. It should not take any more than 40 min. and if you don't want to do the maharasha and maharam the first time around then it should be about 25 minutes.
2) The next session is the in depth one. עיון. For this I found the best thing is to stay on one page of Gemara for a long time. That is to do every single commentary I can get my hands on on that page and do as much as I can in one day. Then the next day I do the same. This should go on for about 40 days at least. It is what people dislike about Lithuanian yeshivas.But the Litvak yeshivas are right about this. People that think they can get the depths of the Gemara without this are usually mistaken.
[The basic commentaries are the regular rishonim and if you can get them the best achronim are the ones coming from the school of thought of Reb Chaim Soloveitick and Rav Shach.]
Also if you are in NY then you ought to make every possible effort to get to one of the authentic Litvak yeshivas. That is if you are going to learn Torah from anyone you have to make sure it is from people that in fact know how to learn. And those kind of people are very rare. The authentic places in NY are the Mir in Brooklyn, Chaim Berlin, and Torah VeDaat, and Shar Yashuv.
[In Israel there are a few more. Ponovitch seems to be the best but Brisk is a close second.]
Why to go to a yeshiva? Maybe you think it is better to spend $30,000 to get a degree in gender studies? The Talmud will still be around when gender studies have been consigned to the garbage bin of history.
Appendix: I used this method for Mathematics and Physics also. But I cant talk about this since I have not made the kind of progress I had hoped. Part of the problem is that my time was limited in how much effort I could spend on these two subjects. Starting at a time when physically I was weak and there were enormous demands on my time and also the terrible problems I was going through I think limited how effective my learning method could have been. Learning Physics 20 minutes in the morning is not means I could not expect teh same results as when I spent 11 hours a day on Talmud.And learning when one is young is not the same as learning as one gets older.
What I recommend today to anyone that will listen is to divide ones time half and half between Talmud and natural science.
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